06/01/2026
This is an email sent to the following:
Usher, Barry ; [email protected]; Perchy, Julie ; '[email protected]'; Donavon Hawk ; [email protected] ; Collins, Richard ; [email protected]; Nicole Gomez ; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] ; Cindy Winkley ; '[email protected]'; [email protected]
Barry,
When are you finally going to believe me—and believe in the abilities the USCG trained into me? Because clearly someone needs to start listening.
Friday, Tansen Fayant was released from MWP on parole. And let’s be honest: she wasn’t “released,” she was dumped. Jim Patelis worked himself to the bone trying to get her the best plan possible, and even that wasn’t enough because she’s disabled and DOC has absolutely no model for disabled parolees. None. Zero.
Taz is a two time PREA victim—first by Officer Waddles in the early 2000s, and now by Nurse James, who is conveniently “on the run,” according to MWP staff. And DOC knows there are multiple victims. They know it. They also knew she was at higher risk because of her previous assault, and they still didn’t take a single meaningful step to protect her.
And then they released her with:
No valid MT ID
No SNAP card
No way to get food
No way to get dinner that night
No soap to even wash herself
Tell me—how in the hell was this supposed to end well? Even if she could work, she can’t get a job without an ID. And even if she magically got hired, she wouldn’t see a paycheck for weeks. So what—she’s supposed to starve until then?
She had a low blood sugar episode the moment she got out. The PREA advocate had to buy her pizza and hand her $20, which she’s clinging to like a lifeline.
Let me spell this out:
A Type 1 diabetic was put on the street with NO ability to get food.
Am I seriously the only one screaming into the void about this?
And let’s not forget—she’s Type 1 because of a medication MWP gave her in the 2000s that destroyed her pancreas. DOC caused the condition and then released her with no way to manage it safely.
I bought her $120 in groceries. Then another $30 for McDonald’s so she could eat dinner. So now I’m $150 in the hole at the start of the month because my tiny pension posted Friday night and I chose to feed a human being instead of paying my bills in full.
Thank you, DOC, for a complete and total failure of a release plan. Without me, she has almost nothing. Her aunt won’t be in Billings until next weekend. Her stepmom can’t help—not out of malice, but because she simply can’t.
And no offense to Jim, but forcing her into sober living when she wanted to parole to my home—where she would have had food, stability, and support—was ridiculous. If she’d come here, I wouldn’t be out $150 I don’t have. And that’s not even counting the care packages I now have to mail. One already cost $12, and I’ve got three more to send.
She can’t work. When her TARS or housing assistance runs out, there is no plan. None.
She wants to go to school—so where is Voc Rehab?
Where is the new DOL Re Entry Program?
Why did no one contact her?
Why wasn’t she even told how to access it?
And this—THIS—is what DOC calls “setting someone up for success”?
Give me a break.
I guess what would I know because according to documented video Steve Hurd our Parole Board President, hates my guts and says “SHE IS ONLY A FELON” It doesn’t take a felon to know you have to eat? I don’t see him taking leftovers to her at sober living that’s for sure and all he does is run his nasty mouth!
